You're not being harsh at all! I appreciate any form of feedback. I've been writing reviews for a couple of years now and am always trying to improve and you gave me some good tips. I'm going to be honest, I don't always write like I did in the this review, I just couldn't over how letdown I was by the record. I agree, I was definitely too negative in my wording considering it got a decent score, but again it all comes back to how disapointing this record is to me. I had listened to Koloss three times through before I wrote that, so that wasn't just my first impression. I like to give records at least a couple of spins before I write a review. As of right now (I haven't listened to again since I wrote the review), It hasn't grown on me one bit. I still echo what I wrote in the review, the memorable riffs and grooves just aren't there and that's a big part of what makes Meshuggah so great. Anyways, I do appreciate your advice Nat and I will do my best to apply your advice to my writing in the future.

Glad to see you didn't get too put off by my comments. I was hoping you wouldn't be offended, because of course that wasn't my objective. I was hoping you'd actually consider what I was trying to say, but sometimes my delivery can be a bit "direct".

I wouldn't argue at all about the feeling of disappointment you had on the first couple of listens, for at least two reasons. First, it's your opinion, and we're all entitled to our own. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, to feel a bit of disappointment after listening to this album a few times, I think is actually natural, because it does represent a bit of a departure for the band. They issued some statements before there were any samples to listen to, and at that time they mentioned (warned?) that there might be some groovier moments on it that are not like what Meshuggah typically does.

Indeed, there are tracks like that, and just like you, they caught my attention big time. The thing is, there is actually a lot of variety on the album. There are groove-laden tracks such as "Do Not Look Down" and "Break Those Bones...", but then there are also typical Meshuggah brain destroyers such as "The Demon's Name...", "Marrow" and "Swarm". Then, there are also some uber-heavy mid-tempo tracks such as "Behind the Sun" and "Demiurge" that remind me a great deal of "Lethargica".

The more I listen to it, there's something here for everybody. The problem is that many of us may have wanted an album full of straightforward aggressive songs like "Bleed" (Why? Because it's a fucking awesome track, that's why!), or an album full of mind-benders like "Pravus" (Why? Because it's a fucking awesome track, that's why!), and so when we didn't get that, maybe we were disappointed. The truth is, maybe, that this is one of the most balanced albums they've ever released, and as Meshuggah fans, maybe "balance" isn't what we were looking for.

Speaking of all this, I think a good portion of my review may have just written itself...

"Koloss", the new album from Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH, sold 18,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 17 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Released in March 2008, MESHUGGAH's previous CD, "obZen", opened with 11,400 units to debut at No. 59. This was substantially more than the 7,000 first-week total achieved by its predecessor, "Catch 33", which entered the chart at No. 170 back in June 2005.